How often do you buy a product and end up feeling like the makers of the product clearly aren’t connected to the people who use the product? For instance, shoes that rub your feet raw or dinnerware that consistently cracks in the heat of a dishwasher.

At Sierra Mazda, one word comes to our minds when we sit in the new Mazda3. Smart. Case in point, the position of its infotainment system. Mazda placed it above where most car manufacturer’s do. Why? So it’s in “the driver’s existing sight picture, thereby minimizing the time required to refocus and readjust the eyes.”

Speaking of the infotainment system, it only shows “seven pieces of information at a time,” and this information is spaced in a way that makes it easy to read. The Mazda3 infotainment system is controlled via dial placed conveniently in reach of the driver’s right hand if the driver sets his or her elbow on the armrest.

This is clearly a car made by a company who is used to driving its own vehicles!